Shopping Cart Software

Shopping Cart software is a program that allows your website visitors to purchase more than one product or service at a time by saving their ordered items temporarily and then populating an order form automatically with their items when they are ready to pay for them.  This software is installed and runs on the server that hosts your store.  It is not essential to have a shopping cart if you are only going to be selling a couple of items, but it is a fantastic tool for increasing sales. Customers can select an item and then continue browsing your website for more information (or other products). At a minimum your shopping cart should allow customers to change the quantities of items ordered, remove items from their shopping cart, process sales tax and calculate shipping charges, letting customers select a shipping method or carrier.

When it comes to choosing a shopping cart solution there are a range of options and associated expenses. The less expensive or free packages require you (or someone on your behalf) to build your catalog and change configuration settings to customize it for your needs. The most expensive shopping cart packages are the easiest ones to use, as they don't require you to know any HTML or scripting and have a browser-based administrative screen that allows you to intuitively build your catalog and customize your order processing. At the same time, these easy-to-use "Store-in-a-box" solutions don't have many options when it comes to choosing how the store looks and it may not blend seamlessly with the rest of your website.

The most expensive and most customizable option is to hire a third-party developer to custom-build a complete online store and then provide training to you and your staff on how to use the system. Depending upon the number of products in your store and the sophistication of the interactive features for improving the "customer relationship" you wish to have, the cost of having a custom-built store can range from $2,500 to $50,000 or more. 

Alternatively, the Amazon Marketplace gives small business owners a place to sell items without having to set-up a website, or online payment processing.  EBay is another place where you can sell products online without having to build a separate website and maintain the payment system yourself.  However, both Amazon and eBay charge for their service and take a percentage of your sales.